The Apogee - Byzantium 02 by John Julius Norwich

Author:John Julius Norwich [Norwich, John Julius]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History, Non Fiction
Publisher: Byzantium
Published: 2010-06-05T23:00:00+00:00

Every year without fail, Saif had led at least one major raid into Byzantine territory. None, however, had been so ambitious as that of the early summer of 960. The moment was perfectly chosen. The army of the East, seriously depleted by the demands of the Cretan expedition, was weaker than it had been for years. Leo Phocas was still mopping up after a successful campaign in south Syria and was thus several days' march away in the opposite direction. Saif was not the man to miss that kind of opportunity; and at almost exactly the time that Nicephorus sailed for Crete - it may well have been on the very same day - he crossed the imperial border from the south-east at the head of a Saracen army estimated at 30,000 men, passing unhindered through the defiles of the eastern Taurus and advancing to the fortress of Charsian1 near Melitene, where he massacred the garrison and took a large number of prisoners.

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